On Wednesday, Feb. 13, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse’s Student Senate Association met for the second meeting of the semester, in which the Student Senate began by discussing the budget of the Academic Initiative Differential Allocation Committee (AIDAC).  

“The AIDAC provides a student voice in the allocation of differential tuition to programs whose purpose coincides with the four fundamental pillars, built on the foundation of student needs; advising, diversity, internationalization, and research,” according to the UWL website.  

AIDAC allocates roughly $1.37 million and was able to fully fund all 12 programs: Academic Advising, the ACCESS Center, Admissions- Diversity Recruiter, Campus Climate, Graduate Research, International Education & Engagement, the Learning Center, the Library, the Pride Center, the School of Education, Undergraduate Research, and Violence Prevention. AIDAC ran their budget by the Student Senate to keep the Student Senate informed on how they divided their budget. 

The Student Senate also reviewed and discussed a new constitution. The last time the UWL Constitution was reformed was in 2009. The Student Senate reformed the constitution making, many grammatical, document structural, and content changes centered around creating a more user-friendly and succinct governing document. Some other changes were made to the composition of the Judicial and Executive branch, where they were made to better reflect the current state of the Student Senate and to better serve the student body. 

The changes made to the current Constitution are so substantial that they require the creation and adoption of an entirely new Constitution. During UWL’s next election on April 16, the student body will choose whether or not to adopt the new amended Constitution. If they vote to adopt it, the current Constitution will be dissolved on May 8 at the start of the new Senate session. 

Inclusivity Director, Sita Agterberg, also brought up the Women of Color Scholarship during the Student Senate meeting. This scholarship is currently in the works, with a fund set up through the UWL foundation. With $670 raised for the scholarship already, they hope to reach their goal of $25,000 by May 2020. The scholarship is specifically for women of color who are juniors or seniors at UWL.  

This scholarship is important because it financially supports women of color and encourages them to continue their education at UWL. There will be a fundraiser with Jill Billings, the State Representative of the 95th Assembly District in Wisconsin, on March 14 to help promote the scholarship.